"The creative adult is the child who has survived."
--Ursula K. Le Guin

April 11, 2008

she ate my books

She was mad that she had to go to bed, and we told her she could stay up and read a book with her flashlight. She decided to use her stool to reach the tippy-top shelf of her book case and bring down my special Dr. Seuss books.

I kept hearing weird tearing sounds. I'm a book freak. I could hear tearing, but it didn't register appropriate paper-weight through the walls as I imagined it might sound if she ripped through some of her current favorites.

I couldn't figure out what she was doing. It sounded like tearing but way more muscular and slow.

I finally barged in and was horrified.

MY DR. SEUSS BOOKS. She killed them. They are forty years old. She ripped up the spines like they were Fed-Ex packages.

Oh, she is in the doghouse.

After I saw what was going on, I removed the entire shelf of "Mommy's Special Books" that I share with her because I love her. I put them in my office, and I told her how sad I was that she would treat books this way.

She asked, "If I hurt *my* books, will you take those away to your office, too?" YES, I WILL, you book-eating beast! I will take all books away from you until you starve in that way that one does without books.

Gosh, I'm so pissed off. But I ate the corners of those same books and can still taste the glue. Part of me is thrilled that she decided to reverse-engineer a book. Yes, she wanted to be mean. How smart of her to choose the old books up on the top shelf. She could achieve maximum impact with little effort.

My three-year-old ate my books! I'm mad at her but I admire her sense of curiousity. I kept those books for 40 years. They've come undone.

2 Comments

I'm sorry but I keep laughing at you calling her a book-eating beast. LOL. Seriously, I am SO sorry....I treasure books like you do so I know this feels like a physical pain. I dreamt about this last night and somehow in my dream I fixed them for you but in the light of day all I have is my sympathy....